Chapter 46
Chapter Forty-Six
Nova
A familiar voice was whispering in my ear.
Are you coming or not?
The room was dark. It smelled of ashes, though I didn’t remember lighting a fire. I felt pressure against my side—a hand. Its grip was strong, almost crushing.
Come along, Nova. Wake up. It’s time to go.
Lorien’s voice, I realized. The words settled over me like cold stones, trying to weigh me down. Trying to drag me to him.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I heard myself mumble.
The hand against my side gripped even more tightly, fingers digging in, each added ounce of pressure making the panic in my chest coil a little tighter, until I could barely breathe because of the pressure on my lungs.
Are you afraid to face me?
I rolled from his grip and stumbled to the nearby chair, snatching up the knife that was piled with the rest of my clothing.
I wasn’t afraid.
I wouldn’t be afraid.
“...Nova?”
I spun to face the dark figure rising from the bed, my knife raised.
You should be afraid, said the voice.
“I’m not afraid,” I hissed back.
With a furious cry, I swung.
The dark figure ducked my attack, darting from the bed and sliding gracefully behind me. I spun after him, swinging even harder this time—but he caught my wrist, halting the blade inches from his neck.
“Nova, what the hell are you doing?”
I set my stance and kept shoving, my stare locked on the life-giving veins of his neck.
“It’s me! Aleks!”
My hand shook violently as I tried to push the knife forward.
His fingers tightened around my wrist, nails pinching in. The bite of pain caught my attention. I blinked, and the fog of confusion and panic began to lift—just enough for the face before me to take on its true shape, transforming from the shadowy visage of a nightmare figure into something clearer. Something safer.
“ Your Aleks,” he whispered. His eyes were wide, pleading, and…golden. A pure, warm gold. Like a sun-drenched wheat field. Not like the reddish-brown blood of Lorien’s eyes.
“…Mine,” I breathed, slowly lowering my arm.
“Yours,” he repeated, leaning his forehead against mine and gripping the sides of my face. “If there was any doubt left in your mind about that…banish it.”
A tremor overcame me as I realized what I’d almost done. I dropped the knife and buried my face in Aleksander’s chest, my stomach churning with a sickness that made my mouth water and my body break out in a cold sweat.
It felt like a long time passed before I managed to calm my racing heart enough to say, “I heard his voice. He was…talking to me.”
Aleks drew back, looking confused for an instant before understanding dawned in his eyes, followed by fury. “What did he say?”
I shook my head; I barely remembered the actual words. Only the feel of them creeping over my skin, trying to burrow themselves into my mind. My heart. “I thought he was here. I thought he was you. Or me. Or…”
I pushed away from him, stumbled to the washroom and immediately vomited into the sink.
Again and again I went back to that sink, until there was nothing left in me to throw up. Even then, I wanted to keep going, until I somehow managed to expel whatever bond I shared with Lorien.
Aleksander followed me after a moment. He didn’t speak. He merely held my hair back, and then helped me into the shower after I collapsed into a sweaty, panicked heap on the cold tile floor. Once I was clean, he dried my scarred skin and squeezed the water from my hair, wrapped me in a blanket, picked me up, and carried me back to the bed.
I was exhausted, but I couldn’t even think of going back to sleep.
The sun was rising. Still barely penetrating the gloom that had overtaken the sky, but enough cool light filtered in to highlight the beads of the bracelet I’d placed on the nightstand.
Aleksander’s gaze shifted between it and me, questioning.
“I took it off last night,” I explained. “Which is probably why Lorien’s voice was able to reach me. Our connection is part of my magic. Not shackling myself with that bracelet makes my power stronger, but it leaves me vulnerable to things like this, I guess.”
He picked the bracelet up, turning it around in his hands, tracing the markings on the beads with a thoughtful touch. I shivered as if he were touching me —which brought to mind a slew of daunting questions. Was there no undoing my connection to it or my other bracelets? Had I worn them too long? Was I really so inseparable from them?
“I’m sorry I attacked you.”
Aleks glanced up at me, giving me that slight, sly smile of his—the one that accented his dimples. “It wouldn’t have been the first time you’d stabbed me.”
I exhaled a deep breath. “Yes, but I thought we were past that stage in our relationship.”
“Me too.” He shrugged. “I do love that you’re full of surprises, though.”
I huffed out a quiet laugh. His face brightened briefly at the sound, but his smile faded as his attention shifted back to the bracelet. “Nova, if wearing this keeps you safe from him…”
“I think we’re well past the point of safe , regardless,” I said, quietly.
He looked ready to disagree, but I took the bracelet and slipped it back on, causing him to fall silent—at least for the time being.
And, at least for the time being, I would pretend this piece of jewelry could actually shield me from everything I faced. I needed to be able to think clearly, anyway; to not risk Lorien invading my mind as I worked out the final details of our battle plans.
But the time was fast approaching when I would no longer be able to shy away from him, or from any of the other horrors looming on the horizon. When I would have to face it all—and wield whatever power I could, whatever the risks.
Aleks and I both knew that moment was coming, even if we didn’t speak of it.
And if it came down to keeping this world or myself safe, we both knew which one I would have to choose.
A short time later, Aleks and I strode confidently into the palace training grounds, side-by-side, escorted by several guards.
My brother waited at the entrance of these grounds, surrounded by our various allies and fellow leaders. He regarded us calmly as we approached—ignoring the immediate confusion and commotion that rippled through the rest of his company as they caught sight of Aleks.
Bastian was expecting us, because he and I had made a decision last night: We were going to attempt to pass through the Nerithys Gate this evening. We would enter that in-between realm and make our way to the Aetherstone, controlling whatever we could to hopefully salvage and restore what was left of our world. And whatever danger awaited, whatever traps Lorien had set, we would face it all head on.
All that was left to do was convince the others of our plan—a plan that would require them to trust both me and Aleksander, whether they liked it or not.
I squared my shoulders, bidding my brother and the others hello with a curt nod. Aleks did the same, and then we both proceeded to ignore them, instead turning our attention to the small army of soldiers running drills across the sweeping training grounds.
They looked more and more alive every time I saw them, the light in their eyes returning; their movements becoming more fluid; their voices less like whispers of wind and more like the confident chatter of seasoned warriors.
But their numbers seemed lower than they should have been.
“Are we missing some?” Aleks wondered quietly.
My brows pinched together in concern as I tried to do a quick headcount. Some were clearly not here; were they simply resting, or was something more sinister to blame?
Was this another symptom of Grimnor disappearing—of the protections over this palace failing?
My power, along with Aleksander’s, had initially brought these soldiers back, but it was the steady magic flowing through the halls here that had allowed them to continue awakening and regaining their humanity. Perhaps some of the weaker beings were already losing their grip on that humanity again.
I hadn’t checked the fissures around the palace walls this morning, but something told me they were likely getting larger, too.
“More evidence that we’re running out of time...” I muttered.
Aleks frowned, but kept his voice light. “Let’s focus on what we have left, then.”
I nodded in agreement, forcing myself to take deep breaths.
Overseeing the drills was Captain Darien Voss, who was also one of the shades we’d brought back at Graykeep. A man who towered well over six feet tall, with white-streaked, dark auburn hair and a permanent gaze of ice, he spoke little but commanded respect merely with his intimidating demeanor. It was all the more intimidating to think of how he’d existed in this world for so much longer than me—hundreds of years longer—even if he had spent most of that time as a shade.
I must have seemed like an outsider to him—to all of the soldiers and leaders I needed to somehow convince to follow me into battle.
Despite my doubts, I lifted my chin and cleared my throat. “Captain Voss.”
He gave me a slight bow. “Lady Nova.”
I was hyper-aware of all the heads turning toward us—my brother and all the ones with him, along with dozens of soldiers who slowly ceased their activities to watch and listen. But I kept my gaze level with Voss’s green eyes, trying not to let it wander along the scars that slashed paths across both his cheekbones.
“You remember who brought you back to life,” I stated—not a question; I was leaving nothing up for debate, and I spoke loudly enough for all of our onlookers to hear me.
Voss glanced between Aleks and me, then gave another slight bow of his head.
“And now we require your service. Your sworn oath. I need the best of your regiment ready to go at a moment’s notice.”
His expression hardened even more than usual—but then he glanced over his shoulder and called out a simple command: “Form rank!”
I held my breath as the soldiers moved with precise, practiced discipline, the sound of their boots against the ground a symphony of controlled clicks and stomps. Captain Voss watched them with cold, calculating intensity. Once they had formed a long, unbroken line, he faced me once more.
A sense of authority tingled through me as our eyes met—the same feeling that had overtaken me last night, when the guards outside Aleksander’s room had moved aside at my command.
“By life or by death,” Voss said, crossing an arm over his chest, “by light or by dark, our swords and services are at your command.”
He kept his arm crossed over his heart, speaking to Aleks and me as though we were one entity—a united king and queen hailed in this realm and every other—and I decided right then and there that he was one I could trust.
Maybe it truly was the magic that tied those of Graykeep to Calista—a power still flowing, still tying his loyalty to the Shadow Vaelora all these centuries later. I couldn’t explain it, but I was grateful for it among the sea of uncertainty I was swimming in.
I did my best to keep my expression stern as I gave him an approving nod.
“Our young queen seems to have a plan,” came Lord Marek’s cynical voice, shattering the solemn silence. “I wonder if she cares to enlighten the rest of us?”
I turned to glare at him. And with my soldiers still standing at attention behind me, I wasted no time launching into a fiery declaration of what I intended to do.
“The Nerithys Gate awaits us,” I said. “I am leaving for it this evening, with my army in tow. If you wish to prove yourself as a leader of this realm, then you’ll join us as well.”
He didn’t reply.
Silence swept over the other gathered leaders, as well, and the soldiers behind me seemed to be holding their breath, making the moment feel tense and tightly wound—like it might snap at the first wrong word or movement.
“…The gate requires a great deal of magic to open,” said a woman with intelligent eyes and a steady, calm voice—Lady Zara, sovereign of the sanctuary city known as Durnhelm, if I recalled correctly. “A great deal of balanced magic.”
“We’re aware,” said Aleks.
“You truly think you can open it?” Zara asked me.
“Your future queen is more than capable of the required magic,” Bastian said, his tone a quiet warning.
“But we’re not worried about her , are we?” asked Lord Marek, his gaze shifting to Aleks.
Aleks cut his eyes toward him. His smile was confident—that familiar smirk bordering on arrogant. Magic simmered just beneath his skin, little cracks of it burning bright in the dreary daylight, and the combination of those things made my heart stutter. He looked undeniably powerful, even after all he’d endured in this realm that he didn’t truly belong to, and a spark of hope flared through me as I stared at him.
We might have both been outsiders in our own way, but in that moment, at least, I felt invincible at his side.
“I stand a better chance of opening it than any of you , don’t I?” he asked Marek.
Lord Marek scowled, but he couldn’t seem to think of a retort to this.
“And if the gate fails to yield to us?” asked Lady Zara. “What then?”
“Then it fails to yield,” I replied, tersely. “And we sit and wait for our demise.”
“As opposed to doing nothing and sitting and waiting for our demise,” Thalia added, pointedly. “Even if all of these plans fail, are you really content with the alternative of doing nothing? Of continuing to live as you are now, with your cities full of wraiths just barely clinging on to what makes them human? The end approaches either way. We have a chance to shift that ending in our favor, and we must take it, whatever the odds.”
A solemn hush fell over the crowd, until my brother said, “The time has come for action, clearly. No one can argue that.”
There was a general murmur of agreement, however reluctant it might have been.
“The gate doesn’t open without these two working together,” he continued, nodding toward Aleks and me. “It requires a delicate balance of magic, as Lady Zara pointed out. As for the Light King? He has sworn his allegiance to Nova. That’s good enough for me. And so all that remains is to decide on a plan.”